Gov. Patrick J. Quinn has hired a new campaign manager, but only after a more-prominent political operative turned down an offer, the Chicago News Cooperative has learned.
Mr. Quinn had sought to recruit James Cauley, who managed Barack Obama’s 2004 campaign for the United States Senate, to lead his November campaign, but wound up with Ben Nuckels, the chief of staff to Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor.
Mr. Cauley said that he had met with Mr. Quinn about managing his campaign but decided that he did not want to leave his native Kentucky.
“If I was a single guy four or five years younger, I would be there,” said Mr. Cauley, 44.
Asked about the governor’s offer to Mr. Cauley, Mica Matsoff , spokeswoman for Mr. Quinn, said, “We talked to a lot of different people.”
Mr. Nuckels replaces John Kamis, who managed Mr. Quinn’s narrow victory in February’s Democratic primary. The governor trails the Republican nominee, Bill Brady, in recent polls by Rasmussen and Public Policy Polling.